A tribute to and catalogue of the works of Alexander "Hugin" Wieser, founder of ambient black metal band Uruk Hai and many other side-projects, including Hrossharsgrani, Hrefnesholt, Elisabetha, B-Machina, Ceremony of Innocence and more!
Here you will find my thoughts on his work and details on the releases as drawn from items in my personal collection, forming a fuller catalogue of his work than is currently available elsewhere online

It seems quite incredible that we're almost in June, which will be halfway through 2016 to all intents and purposes, yet this is the first "From The Vaults Of W.A.R." entry this year?! Well, high time Nazgul pulled another item from the darkest recesses of his collection to dust off for your entertainment. In so doing, we celebrate the 25th entry in this ongoing and (hopefully) endearing series!

And it's a rare as hen's teeth outing for that most mysterious of projects, Heimatleid, who turn up about once a year in some random post and then disappear in a puff of industrial smoke thereafter. Also featured on this proposed but ultimately unreleased CD are vampyric legends Elisabetha, making it the most unlikely pairing of bands since the late, great Lemmy teamed up with the Nolan Sisters.

The rather modern looking cover art is an A.W. creation of course, but what of the background to this enigmatic piece? Nazgul put the inevitable question to our intrepid Austrian hero and received the following reply by carrier raven:"I had planed the "Zeit" release first as a Heimatleid release, but than I changed the name into Bonemachine. This particular release then never happened. The Elisabetha part was released on "Vampyr"in the end. The Bonemachine part was released as the "Schwarzes Jerusalem"split CDr with Elymas".

You will also recall that the 'Schall& Rauch" song was also the content of a split 7" vinyl release with Grimthorn, which was incorrectly titled as an Uruk Hai release when of course it was properly attributable to Bonemachine!

To finish on an enigmatic note, there'll be more about the Elisabetha song 'Erszebet Bathori (Eine Mar Aus Fleisch) Kapitel 2' in a future post as something rather interesting has happened...

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Band:HROSSHARSGRANITitle: From The Dark AgesReason for second update: A previously unseen flyer for this tape-only release

It was literally back in the Dark Ages (well, alright, July 2009 to be precise) that Nazgul originally reviewed this scarce Hrossharsgrani tape.

Released in 1999 as a joint release on the Italian Ered Gorgoroth Productions label & Nox Infandus Records in Denmark, there were only 150 copies of the cassette released and it's now a pretty rare item to find.

The reason for this second update (the first update covered off alternate cover art that Hugin had designed) is that a rare flyer for the tape has been spotted in the depths of the Internet, and is pictured at the top of this post. It's currently on it's way to the Castle collection having been purchased as part of a job lot of other Hugin related flyers from an online source; most of these other cards, flyers and leaflets from bands such as Bonemachine, WACH, Uruk Hai and Elisabetha look to be familiar to Nazgul but you never know, there could be something else new in there too...

The text on this "From The Dark Ages" promotional flyer reads:

"A mighty compilation of rare and unreleased tracks from the masters of Barbarian Black Metal takes you back to the glorious age of heroism & war. Recorded with Pagan power in the year of fight 1999 at W.A.R. Studio in Lentia/Osterreich.

Grim battles had to be fought, blood froze at the sound of the charging blades, born from flesh and steel, and bathed in fire and ice, the iron force of Hrossharsgrani rose to war in the land of fight: sealed was the way of the warrior"

Given you've been starved of recent updates to Honour and Darkness due to the annunal vacation, Nazgul thought you'd enjoy this little update ahead of its physical arrival in the Castle collection, to keep your irregular fix of Hugin-ness alive...! Also worth noting is that I've managed to find a second copy of the tape too, to augment the Castle collection, so if you're desperate to buy a copy for yourself drop me an email at the usual address.

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Band:BONEMACHINETitle: Monolog & RythmusReason for update: Same release, on the Australian Smell The Stench label, but with a different colour cover .

If you're a male, then around 8% of you reading this update will most likely find it unhelpful. For those of you of the opposite gender, the percentage falls markedly to 0.8%, in other words affecting around 1 in 100 female readers.

You will have surmised from the pictures (well, 92% or 99.2% of you will have, depending on gender) that we're talking about a red coloured update to a previously green tinged post! Yes, it's the maverick handiwork of none other than Leigh Stench at Smell The Stench, the diy Australian label who issued a lot of Hugin's work in the early years, particularly from Bonemachine, Elisabetha and Uruk Hai.

The original 2009 review of the "Monolog & Rythmus" CDr release featured a lurid green cover, whilst today's update sports a more sombre red cover. This multi-coloured presentation is not unfamiliar from this particular label, and we've had past examples of it for tape releases in particular: one example being the Elisabetha 'Nosferat' release.

There's no apparent rhyme or reason for this approach, Hugin confirms: it's really down to Leigh and how he fancied releasing the item at the time. Consequently, I don't think there is any information that will clarify how many copies of each colour were released, or even how many different colours may be out there. I've only ever seen green, white and red for the mainstream Hugin releases on this label, but let's not forget that the ILL demo "s.t.r.a.n.g.e." was released with a blue inlay, so it's not impossible that other rogue colours are out there somewhere. Equally possible, given the do-it-yourself nature of the label, is that some 'enterprising soul' could merrily bootleg different colours for 'collectors' releases' ("looking for a yellow 'Nosferat' cover, guv'nor? Of course, only £30 to you, very rare they are, honest....") so I'd be very cautious of anything you see for sale that looks out of type from Leigh's usual hues.

Interestingly the online SkullLine distro/shop has some of the green versions for sale, and states that they are part of a limited edition of 100 copies. Not sure where that intelligence is drawn from, as there's nothing on the Smell The Stench site to corroborate that and sites such as Discogs (where Hugin is known to haunt, updating his discography for details such as this) also doesn't specify an edition total. Make of it what you will.

Just to be clear, there's no difference between these two versions of "Monolog & Rythmus" in terms of artwork, track listing etc. It's the same release, merely in different coloured inlays.

Speaking of things changing colour, there will be a break in transmissions in Honour and Darkness for the next couple of weeks whilst Nazgul flies south for the summer for a couple of weeks seeking some much needed sunshine and a tan, so more from me at the end of the month. Until then, keep supporting Hugin's mighty releases and stay healthy....